The crucial future of fishmeal

by Dr Neil Auchterlonie, Technical Director, IFFO

Attending the GAA’s GOAL conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador, recently, brought back into focus the large amount of effort that is being put into the promotion of novel ingredients for aquafeeds, largely at the expense of the materials that have supported the development of the sector, i.e. fishmeal and fish oil.
 

There is a lot of excitement in conferences such as the GAA’s GOAL event, about some of these possible new ingredients, with liberal use of the word “innovation” in the discussions.

IFFO’s position on the novel ingredients sector is clear. IFFO recognises the need for more volume of ingredients to meet the growing requirement for more aquafeed, in turn to support additional aquaculture production. With an annual finite supply of approximately five million tonnes of fishmeal, and a little under one million tonnes of fish oil, growth will not come in the production of these ingredients to any marked degree.

Although, as a side note, it is interesting to note that there are still opportunities for the collection of more processing byproduct material from fisheries, and that with the development of aquaculture there will be more raw material available through that sector as well. No, the production of fishmeal and fish oil is unlikely to change significantly over time, and the feed industry will have to look to some of these other ingredients to make up the shortfall in volume that is a reality of the situation.

In all this it is, however, important to realise that fishmeal and fish oil will continue to be the foundation for future aquafeeds, despite the communications to the contrary. Consistent use of the term “replacement” does nothing to help this message, and it is revealing that in private many of the contacts in these companies agree that the reality is “supplementation” of fishmeal and fish oil rather than replacement, but that message seems to change a little in the public arena. There are very good reasons why fishmeal and fish oil importance will be maintained or even enhanced, all related to the nutritional values and contributions made by fishmeal and fish oil.

Read more HERE.

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